Holiday? Huh?

It's been well over a month since I last wrote, I've realised. I'm going to surprise you and tell you that the reason this time is that I've been kind of busy, for the most part. Since I last wrote, I went on my trip to Sri Lanka for my Eid el-Adha break and had a great time. My sister spontaneously joined me for the trip and we stayed with a friend who's been living and working in the country for several years. I positively revelled in the life, the hustle and bustle of the place (I think I'm a city girl at heart - big cities) as well as the hills and mountains of hill country. We visited an elepant orphanage on our way to the interior of the country to Kandy, visited a tea planation and from there, we moved onto some ancient cities in the country. We were in Columbo for only two days really, but given that our trip was only a week-long, we were pressed for time. It was a lovely, interesting trip overall and really, an escape from here. It's safe to say that I dealt with a bit of post-vacation blues when I came back. In fact, I think I'm still battling it sometimes. I returned from the trip in early December and since then, I've been scurring around, getting things done, trying to keep myself preoccupied with work, rather than my vacation. Now that I've stopped for a moment to take a breath, it's already Christmas. Jesus! (pun intended).

In other news, a good friend (the one who sent me the care package from Portland) gave birth to her son and just a couple days ago, my oldest and bestest friend shared with me that she's almost finished her first trimester of pregnancy. I guess baby-related news will become more frequent now that we're into our third decade of life. Wow, I can barely bring myself to say it, but I'm now thirty years old. I turned 30 a couple weeks ago and if a day like today is any indication, I feel old. (I'm exhausted because I didn't sleep well last night - another symptom of old age?). So yes, that was another thing that happened since I last wrote.

Anyway, now it's Christmas and I can safely say that I could've easily passed it by without a thought, had it not been for the couple of people who invited me for Christmas dinner. I've been in my own haze for the last little while that when someone asked me what I was doing for Christmas, I was caught off guard. It's Christmas already? I don't have a tree, no decorations, no candy canes, no tinsel or eggnog. More importantly, there's no snow and it's not even that cold really. The "winter" this year has us at 23 degrees celsius or so, with evenings going down to the teens. As well, I just haven't been feeling festive as of late (um....okay, this year), so all in all, Christmas is upon us now and I had no clue. So for Christmas eve, I'll be having a meal at a couple-friend's (I hang out with them as a couple - that tends to happen a lot here) house, and then on Christmas day, a couple of my single friends and I will get together for a meal. Maybe we'll watch Avatar too, since that's in the theatres now. It hit me awhile ago that this will be the fifth Christmas I've spent without family, snow, turkey and presents - and all in the Middle East. I can't deny that it's made me a bit nostalgic for home.

On a brighter note, for my mid-year break (in February), my sister may be coming to visit me in Doha, and a friend and I have made tentative plans to fly out to Istanbul for a week. I've never been to Turkey, so it'll be nice to see this apparently gorgeous city. I can't wait. As far as school is concerned, after this week, there are two weeks left of classes and then we have the final exams. (Yippee!) Then we kind of off-the-hook for a few weeks before we can officially start our break. Looking forward to that.

So I'm going to end this update-ish posting here, but I just wanted to add that it heartened me a bit to find that someone out there is reading this (anon in Singapore) other than my dad and sister. And maybe a friend in Canada. And occasionally...I'll read over old posts myself. So Merry Christmas and Happy 2010 to you all. On the left is a pic of me wandering amidst the ancient ruins of Pollonuwara, Sri Lanka. I was happy even though you can't see my face. Trust me.